Dr. Budhaditya Chowdhury’s research interests encompass genetic and neurobiological understanding of systems-level behavior. His current research explores neurophysiological correlates of deep sleep in Drosophila and conserved mechanisms at the intersection of sleep and social behaviors. As we collectively navigate our lives through sleeplessness, Budha strives to understand what “waking up on the wrong side of the bed” means. His formative years as a Drosophila neurobiologist were spent in the lab of Prof. Edward Kravitz, learning how to fight flies, and he is currently in the lab of Prof. Orie Shafer, where he keeps flies from sleeping. Budha enjoys putting his background in computational ethology, multivariate modeling, molecular genetic analysis, and circuit mechanism to good use for his experiments in his search for simple answers to big questions. As a first-generation immigrant scientist from India, he cares deeply about representation, rights, and responsibilities. He is actively involved in efforts to decolonize science and provide broad access to tools and discourses in neuroscience for diverse communities across the US. When he has free time, Budha can be found in tennis courts, independent bookstores, and art museums.

Supriya's research focuses on the neural basis of visual attention, with a particular emphasis on how attention control, neuromodulation, and perceptual processes facilitate adaptive behavior. During his Ph.D. at NCBS in India, under Dr. Sumantra Chattarji, he found that the auditory cortex plays a role in perceptual discrimination, while the lateral amygdala is crucial for generalizing learned fear, influencing the transition from an adaptive to maladaptive behavior. In his postdoctoral work with Dr. John Maunsell at the University of Chicago, Supriya studied how neuronal representations of two fundamental components of attention– selective attention and attentional intensity or effort are resilient to motivational contexts and contribute to cognitive demands. Additionally, funded by a BBRF Young Investigator Award, he identified a highly selective and specific contribution of brainstem norepinephrine neuromodulation to enhance visual attentional performance by driving perceptual sensitivity, a fundamental aspect of perception. Supriya's research is supported by a NIMH R21 award. His future research interests include investigating how contextual information is transformed into cognitive controls and how cognitive biases interfere to shape adaptive behavior.

Dr. Xuyu Qian is an NINDS K99/R00 postdoctoral fellow at Dr. Christopher Walsh’s laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on understanding the development and diseases of the human cerebral cortex using human-centric approaches. Under the mentorship of Dr. Hongjun Song and Dr. Guo-li Ming during his PhD at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Qian pioneered the development of human pluripotent stem cell-derived brain organoids and their application as disease models. Currently, he utilizes single-cell spatial transcriptomics to analyze the developing human cortex, uncovering fundamental insights into the formation and specification of distinct cortical layers and areas. By integrating organoid models, spatial omics, and human genetics, Dr. Qian aims to decode healthy developmental programs and identify the genetic and cellular disruptions that lead to diseases, paving the way for advanced therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Robyn St. Laurent is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University in Dr. Robert Malenka’s lab. As an undergraduate at Colby College, she studied auditory synchronization in human runners, Drosophila Parkinson’s models, and neural mechanisms of cocaine reward in rats. She was a post-baccalaureate trainee with Dr. Yavin Shaham at NIDA, studying neural circuitry in relapse to drug seeking in rats. She then received her PhD from Brown in Dr. Julie Kauer’s lab and uncovered circuit-specific synaptic plasticity that was differentially regulated by opioids (supported by an F31 NRSA). As a postdoc, first in Dr. Anatol Kreitzer’s Lab at Gladstone, she identified critical amygdala circuits controlling negative reinforcement and corresponding impairments in a mouse model of obsessive-compulsive disorder that could be rescued with optogenetic manipulations. Her current research focuses on the neural circuitry controlling behaviors implicated in psychiatric illnesses and neuromodulation at inhibitory synapses with the goal of identifying new circuit-specific therapeutic interventions.

Dr. JiaBei Lin is a Research Associate in the Shorter Lab at the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on identifying and characterizing novel disaggregases, chaperones, and other biomolecules that maintain or restore protein and genome homeostasis. Specifically, she targets aberrant protein aggregation associated with amyloid-beta (Aβ), α-synuclein, TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43), and Fused-In-Sarcoma (FUS), which are linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Lin's work has been recognized and supported by the Alzheimer's Association Research Fellowship, the Warren Alpert Foundation Distinguished Scholars Fellowship, and the Mildred Cohn Distinguished Postdoctoral Award. Her ultimate career goal is to establish her own independent research laboratory dedicated to preventing and curing age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Johnathan M. Borland earned bachelor degrees in Chemistry and Psychology from Emory University in 2009.  He later earned a PhD in Neuroscience at Georgia State University under the mentorship of Drs. H. Elliott Albers and Kyle J. Frantz.  He is now a 5th year postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota under the mentorship of Drs. Robert L. Meisel, Paul G. Mermelstein and Patrick E. Rothwell.  He is interested in understanding the neuronal mechanisms that regulate the rewarding properties of social interactions, with a particular focus on plasticity in synapses, oxytocin regulation and sex differences in mechanism.

Dr. Yunlu Zhu is interested in how gravity sensation guides our movement and why it goes wrong in diseases. Yunlu received his Ph.D. from Dr. Sarah Kucenas’ lab at the University of Virginia where he studied glia and neuroimmunology. Currently, he is a Leon Levy and Rainwater Tau Postdoctoral Fellow in the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU School of Medicine. Working in the lab of Dr. David Schoppik, Yunlu has developed new techniques for measuring behavior and neuronal function in larval zebrafish. His research has led to the identification of brainstem circuits that control gravity-guided posture and locomotion. Yunlu’s current work reveals circuit mechanisms underlying balance deficits in neurological diseases. He seeks to run a laboratory to unravel how heterogeneous behavioral deficits arise from molecular insults in diseases. In addition to his research, Dr. Zhu has a strong background in mentoring and is committed to creating a work environment that encourages discussion and curiosity. Outside the lab, he has undertaken multiple community and leadership services. Yunlu received The Christine Beattie Award from the The International Zebrafish Society in 2022.

Dr. Dah-eun (Chloe) Chung is a postdoctoral associate and a BrightFocus fellow at the laboratory of Dr. Huda Zoghbi at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). Chloe is interested in investigating molecular drivers and suppressors of pathological protein aggregation and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. She initially developed her interest in dementia research when she was an undergraduate student majoring in biochemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. Chloe received her PhD in neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. For her doctoral work, under the mentorship of Dr. Leonard Petrucelli, she studied the seeding and aggregation of tau protein that becomes abnormally modified in AD and other neurodegenerative tauopathies. Currently, for her postdoctoral research, Chloe is leading studies on the functions and properties of an atypical “big tau” isoform that may play unique roles in health and disease in the central nervous system. Her work has been supported by the BrightFocus Foundation Alzheimer's Disease Research Postdoctoral Fellowship and the BCM Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases (CAND).

Dr. Lina Marcela Carmona is a postdoctoral research scientist in the lab of Dr. Rui Costa at the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University. She received her B.A in molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania and began her research training in the lab of Dr. Tobias Baumgart working on biochemical characterizations of membrane phase separation. Marcela conducted her doctoral training in the Immunobiology Department at Yale University in the lab of Dr. David Schatz where she focused on the evolutionary history of adaptive immunity by examining the relationship of the Recombination Activating Gene (RAG) proteins to transposable elements. As a postdoc, she has sought to apply her interest and training to delineate molecular mechanisms of motor learning. In this work, she has characterized a critical role for corticothalmic neurons in motor cortex during movement execution. Marcela is now focused on defining the cellular pathways in these neurons which facilitate motor learning. Ultimately, her goal is to examine how molecular phenomena throughout the motor system give rise to the system level changes that drive motor learning.